BIGlOADoFgARFORTH

3 more great local businesses joining us this week. Garforth Golf Range, Glam-u-licious and Steve Lang Bike Fix as well as another local band coming on board Stripped Back and a the great team at Garforth Amateur Dramatics – Keep an eye out for them being up on the website soon, all the information on the live board will be being posted now.What another fantastic week it has been, I do love my job. Meeting people is always great especially when they too as so passionate about the town their business is.I attended the wonderful Boutique Beauty charity re-launch this week and Mr and Mrs B had organised a wonderful array of people to attend,Apple Tree Vintage with fabulous dresses, Lubylu and her gorgeous candles and melts – I'm a huge fan. Baht 'at Designs - Tweed Creations with her wonderful supply of hand crafted bags and the creative, My Little Shop of Wonder with her clever cards as well as fair few others and to add to the ambiance, Scarlett Rain trio girls sang songs from days gone by. All the items on sale that night are available to buy in Mrs B's fabulous boutique right here in Garforth - so lucky to have such great businesses with great people in them. You can also purchase items at Adore Antiques at the top of Main street #gotitcoveredWord on the Street Angels and Butterflies and Scream open tomorrow in the old Cohens chemist – Saturday morning, so please go and pay a visit and show your support. Down the road, the great Garforth Musical Society will be playing outside Dorothy Annes from 11am and you can get a form to play their Treasure Hunt #takepart and have fun

Libbys looks underway for changes, hoardings went up on windows today along with a note about parking and fines if you park after the 30th march, so please be aware

Thanks to our wonderful councillors, they have invested funds into Glebelands by having outdoor gym equipment put up all around the field – Full plans are in the library. Their next project is to update the much needed park near Firthfields Community centre so #watchthisspace

I held the first Coffee, Chat and Catch-up meeting at Cielo today from 10am, a few people stopped by, but hopefully my new sign we'll have for next month will be up and attract more of you to come and have a chat

Garforth Hour Live Night which takes place on the 31st March is getting booked up, so if you want to attend, free, you must register http://www.themaindeal.co.uk/garforth-hour.html

We finally welcome the Girls at Garforth Loves Slimming World and Dorothy Anne’s this week who have a brilliant online store.

I met the lovely Tony from TC First Aid Training yesterday and I'm looking forward to a couple of meetings next week with Jo from Glam-u-licious in East Garforth and Mark from Garforth Golf Range as well as Steve from Bike-Fix and other businesses coming on board the website next week. We're nearly at 9,500 hits to our website and people are really using it to find about local information and events. Holiday inn put up an advert this week for a great event they have on in May, Angel Delight, top drag act – It’s all about keeping it local, whether it’s a shop or a night out.

Word on the Street

Angels and Butterflies are having their 'moving launch on Saturday 28th March. They're moving above the old Cohen’s Chemist which will be above Scream/Fifty shades of Garforth? – Debbie who owns Angels & Butterflies will have more space to sell even more wonderful items as well as run some more workshops – look local for the small things that are great

GOOD MORNING – The Little Breakfast Kitchen is FOR SALE - it’s a great little company that needs to grow from just a Sunday, can you be the person that runs it from your Kitchen and keep the ethos of supporting Garforth local business? It has its own social media pages with a good following and good customers as well as its own bespoke online ordering system – contact me for further details – Christine@themaindeal.co.uk

The Viral advert is finished – woo hoo – Music is being added now by the very talented Tim Manion from https://soundcloud.com/iamdaydreamer and then I will put it out for you to see and share

Garforth Hour Live Night takes place on the 31st March and is getting booked up, so if you want to attend for free, you must register http://www.themaindeal.co.uk/garforth-hour.html

I attended the ‘Garforth Christmas Committee’ meeting last night, with a few traders, community, Lions and Councillors and together, we can achieve great things this Christmas – make it better, make it an event – do it together

I also attended a meeting to discuss with shops on Fairburn Drive the plans that are in place with the council for the painting of white lines as well as time restrictions for outside. In order it’s used just for customers and not staff in the shops, people need to be considerate to the businesses, especially as they haven't had the best of years due to lack of footfall and this is one thing we're working on ‘Together’ to try and change.

Looking forward to attending Boutique Beauty’s Launch night on Monday evening – Click on the link if you too want to attend and see this beautiful salon, there will be local crafters and you can book in treatments too

Happy Red Nose Day - Give what you can to someone that will always have less than you.Another business on board this week, Welcome, Tony Clough First Aid Training, an asset to have locally, a company trained in H&S at work as well as First Aid. We will soon be adding the lovely ladies at Slimming World Garforth; just waiting for all of their information.I attended the re-scheduled defibrillator training this week, what a great free course we were able to attend. This is such a clever and extremely important piece of life saving equipment we have in our town. I feel now that our local community shoppers will be in safe hands; they're opposite Anne at Dorothy Anne’s! If you see a big red heart sign on our shop windows, you know a staff member has been trained in using the defibrillator.Beauty Matters LaunchWow, this is something very different for Garforth and we should be pleased that Mel and her team have decided to stay and grow their business on our high street. My initial thoughts where worrying, what were they going to bring to the very saturated market of Hair and Beauty in Garforth? But on my entry to the shop last night, this is something very different, very high end. Some of their equipment and treatments they're offering you will generally only see in top Spa venues. They will of course, still be delivering their great general beauty treatments that they have always offered in their smaller salon, but on entry, you will get a very different feel. It lessens the worry as it will only attract more people to Garforth and as they are doing a few different treatments not currently offered by our other fabulous salons, then it should take a little of the pressure off.

Word on the Street Most of the ‘talk about town’ this week has been all about the proposed Mr Wether and Mr Spoon arriving on our doorstep, this is still in planning stages, so we will wait and see what happens. If it does go ahead there are positives and negatives.Positives·We will see an influx of more people to our high street·The Libby’s building will be more aesthetically pleasing to the street·It may bring the buzz the street needs to entice other businesses to come into Garforth whilst adding to the much needed nightlife Negatives·It WILL affect other local businesses – pubs and cafes, which have potential to close ·Where is the Dayspring church going to go?·What type of clientele will it bring in? Will it have an effect on our shops at night time?SweetshakeshaveSOLD - The people taking on Sweetshakes are buying the business as is and I'm looking forward to meeting the new proprietors very soon to find out if they have any plans for the future of its business.

Bella Rose – will have some great news in the next few weeks, #earonthegroundWithout question, we are going to see some great new things happening over the next few months’ #exciting times aheadI am holding our first Garforth Hour Live night at the lovely La Bella Vita at the end of the month and our First CCC morning, Coffee, Chat and Catch-up at Cielo – the last Friday of every month.Looking forward to getting people network, talking and most importantly coming together

Two more business confirmed this week The Podger and the lovely ladies at Slimming World Garforth – keep an eye out for their information on our website soon. I attended the Neighbourhood Elders Team computer workshop this week, invited by the lovely Des who helps teach these lovely, funny and very charming senior citizens. It was lovely to get some feedback and show them how they too can look online to shop local before they leave their homes #silversurfersI also attended the Yorkshire Ladies Links Conference in Harrogate this week with Anne from Dorothy Anne’s and listened to some very inspirational women about how they’ve grown in business through all kinds of adversity; and then a few celebrities milling and talking, Christa Akroyd and Christine Talbot. Glad to have finally met the head guys from Garforth Golf Club their and had a great chat about their wonderful function rooms they have for hire, with all the latest’s technical gear to make your party go with a swing - a place to think aboutWord on the Street Beauty Matters are holding their launch night next week and I’ve been lucky enough to have been invited. It will be interesting to see what they’re all about and what their Garforth shop with its 8 treatment rooms is going to offer #spa #lipo3DHold on to the news, for the Dayspring Church have been gazumped in their purchase of The Liberal club #watchcarefully #greedisuglyViral video is now nearly finished, and sorry for the delay, but we have been waiting on the last few videos to come in, which I feel are important for the video.Next Week – Garforth Hour Live – our first one is to be announcedUntil next week.............

Author

My name is Christine Thom, I came to live in Garforth nearly 22 years ago; you may have seen me around ?

Over the past 5 years I have grown The Main Deal to give support to local businesses, classes, bands, activities, projects and try every day to change perceptions about the place we all live and how to #shoplocal #uselocal #shopgarforth first

The Blog is here for fun, to help you find out what's been going on each week in TMD HQ and what's relevant to Garforth, planning, news, events, and important information I feel you need to know.​The EthosConnecting community and business with each other through simple and clever marketing, and supporting g the good of where we chose to live.